English
vitiation
Vitiation comes from Latin vitiō ‘to spoil, damage’, and goes back to vitium ‘fault, vice’.
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitium1‘fault, vice’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitiō2as vitiare‘to spoil, damage’
- Englishearliest quotation 1936vitiation2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin vitio
- 2 Wiktionary, English vitiation
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1936, Dale Carnegie, Part 3, Chapter 1. You Can't Win an Argument: “Lincoln once reprimanded a young army officer for indulging…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitiumWiktionary, Latin vitio‘fault, vice’
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEvitiōWiktionary, English vitiationas vitiare‘to spoil, damage’
- Englishearliest quotation 1936vitiationWiktionary, English vitiation. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1936, Dale Carnegie, Part 3, Chapter 1. You Can't Win an Argument: “Lincoln once reprimanded a young army officer for indulging…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ ‘two’
two, doubt, twin, defeat, dual, duo, binary, diplomacy, duet, twain, bis, dubious, disparate, biceps, twig, deuce, bes, binocular, betwixt, 20 more
through Latin vitium ‘fault, vice’
Today it means
noun A reduction in the value, or an impairment in the quality of something.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “vitiation”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin vitio. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Latin vitium / vitiation